It’s a premiere, so to speak, in Teaneck’s Cedar Lane shopping district: a refurbished second-run theater that will also screen art and foreign films.

The script began three weeks ago when Frank Manis, a Florida-based businessman, bought the cinema from the Edison-based Movie City chain.

Manis and his wife, Lynn, also own the second-run Cinema 35 in Paramus through their Hudson Amusements organization.

And Manis hopes to expand his cinematic empire further.

He is also eyeing the Rialto Theater in Ridgefield Park.

“The concept there is to try to control the whole market,” he said. Varying the offerings from theater to theater is also on the agenda.

“I think it has a tremendous amount of potential,” he said of the Rialto’s single screen.

In the meantime, there is the business of revamping the Teaneck theater, now named the Teaneck 3.

Scheduled over the next several months, the changes are already under way. Walls have been painted. The second snack bar has been reopened. Neon is being installed to brighten the lobby. Floors have been scraped and repainted. The stage around the screen has been repainted from black to red.

“We’re proud of it now – we’ve come a long way in only three weeks,” said Ed Jupin, the manager.

The renovation will cost between $50,000 and $75,000 and will include new screens, carpet, a marquee, and the replacement or refurbishment of the seats.

That will come at a cost to ticket holders: On Thursday, prices at both the Teaneck Theater and the single-screen Cinema 35 will increase from $2.50 to $3.

The new prices should be in effect for two years, Manis said.

With occupancy allowed for 1,100, he is investigating adding a fourth screen with about 125 seats upstairs, he said. The downstairs theaters seat 180, 265, and 390.

But ultimately, “it all depends on the product,” Manis said.

According to plans, that product will expand to include art and foreign films, Manis said.

“Once the kids go back to school in September, then we will start to be creative,” he said. Meanwhile, he added, the theater will build up its clientele.

At the single-screen Cinema 35, there is “a very regular customer following,” said Margot Moll, general manager for both theaters. And of those interested in art and foreign films, she said: “I always had a very, very loyal following.”

Manis of Boca Raton, Fla., owns nightclubs and has owned other first- and second-run theaters, including Gutenberg’s Galaxy, which he sold three years ago.

He didn’t like the first-run business, he said, and sold those theaters. Second-run “gives you an opportunity to pick the winners in first-run.”

Suppliers like it because if a movie isn’t a blockbuster and gets bumped from first-run houses, “the supplier of the film still wants to have it out there showing,” he said.

“I think there’s a tremendous market for it.”

When Manis bought the Teaneck theater, updating was in order.

“It was in major disrepair, and we felt that we needed to clean it up,” Jupin said. “I feel that the face lift should improve business.”

The district could use the help – plagued by numerous vacancies, it has tried to rally by creating a Special Improvement District.

Although the renovation is a work in progress, there have been “a lot of compliments,” Jupin said.

“A lot of the other merchants here feel that the new ownership is the talk of the town and could help their business.”

Others seem to agree.

“I’m happy that it’s being refurbished,” said David Alan, whose Cedar Lane salon is one of three in his eponymous chain. “I think it’s good for all.”

Although Alan was unambiguous in welcoming the refurbishing, he said it could exacerbate an existing problem: “There’s no place to park.”

Still, he said, it was a “very dirty theater” that probably lost customers as a result.

The theatre was split into 3 screens on the lower level. A fourth screen was recently added in what seems to have been some sort of storage room, located on the second floor above the ground level retail stores. The new theatre is just a long rectangle, with a completely flat floor and a ceiling that seems to be around 15 feet high. Unlike most split single screens, this theatre has no balcony theatres (assuming it originally had a balcony)

Yet the mutilation and demise of another single screen classic theater. Never been there, I bet it was something back in the day. There are many theaters from North jersey, some still around…Hawthorne theater, Claridge Theater in Montclair, Allwood theater in Clifton, Hyway theater in fair lawn, Wayne Preakness in Wayne, Warner in Ridgewood etc. All former single screens, great theaters…back then. Now catered to the masses, showing crappy films. Some arew architectually a mess. the Claridge…it was a grand palace , now it’s dank, drab, uncomfortable and run by morons. I had to get out of my seat on many occasions to tell them to start the flick and close the doors. The teenagers were too busy talking. God, I miss the 70’s.

The previous link photo shows the facade’s vertical fluting to virtually identical to that on the SHERMAN theatre of 1935 in Milwaukee. Wonder if the TEANECK/CEDAR also had neon tubing between the flutes?

I recall having seen the Menahem Golan-helmed Sylvester Stallone flop “Over the Top” at this theatre in 1987. I am sorry to say I have absolutely no recollection of the visit, other than the fact that, after the show, my teenaged buddies and I journeyed up to Fiebel’s Bowling Alley on Palisade Ave. (which, unlike the theatre, did not live to see the new century) to play some arcade games.

The theatre’s official website shows an image of the theatre in 1960, featuring “Strangers When We Met” on the marquee.

An older photo can be found athttp://www.geocities.com/t_munday/page15.html
The theatre can clearly be seen in the lower image at the site, with “Grand Opening [illegible] Sept 24” on the marquee. Note the adjoining retail space is also awaiting its ‘grand opening.’